Are videos taking over?
These days it seems like you can’t go anywhere on the World Wide Web without a video clip or two being thrust into your line of vision. Even for the lover of the written word, there is the realization that videos are taking over. From 15sec. boomerangs to Snapchat videos and Instagram stories to ads on blogs and the biggest marketer in the industry, YouTube, videos are literally everywhere. No one seems to be complaining though as the stats for video consumers rise higher. In fact, in 2014 a report from Cisco was released with the results of a conducted research.
Video content accounted for an impressive 64% of all of the world’s internet traffic in 2014, but even with all the ALS challenges, and cat videos that year brought us, CISCO predicted an explosion in consumption over the next 4 years. According to them by 2019, online video will be responsible for four-fifths of global Internet traffic.
Zenith Media also shares how a similar report by the Online Video Forecast predicted the average amount of time people will spend consuming online video each day will increase by 23.3% in 2015 and by a further 19.8% in 2016. This growth in video consumption being driven by the rapid rise of smartphone and tablet penetration across the globe, together with the resulting changes in consumer behaviour. By 2014, this proportion had risen to 40.1%, 52.7% in 2016 and an expected 58.1% in 2017.
The Cisco VNI forecast also predicted that internet video will account for 79% of global Internet traffic by 2020 – up from 63% in 2015. It estimates the world will reach three trillion Internet video minutes per month by 2020, which is five million years of video per month, or about one million video minutes every second. Imagine that! It would take you five million years to watch all the videos transmitted in the course of one month! That is a crazy but true statistic, and if you did economics you understand that if there is a market seller/provider then there is also a consumer.
According to Tubular Insights, the Cisco VNI forecast Internet also forecasted the increase of video four-fold between 2015 and 2020. It predicted that video traffic will be 82% of consumer Internet traffic by 2020 – up from 68% in 2015. It forecasts business Internet video traffic will be 66% of business Internet traffic by 2020 – up from 44% in 2015. And it notes that virtual reality traffic quadrupled in the past year and estimates it will increase 61-fold by 2020. This report represents the culmination of months of data gathering, analysis, due diligence, and crosschecking with syndicated and direct data sources.
So what does that mean for you? Even if you have been avoiding –though that is doubtful- it is time to incorporate videos into your work as well as play. Knowing this growth rate in the video consumption age can give you an advantageous head start. According to Dr. James McQuivey of Forrester Research 1.8 million words is the value of a one-minute video. As Deandelesto.com so charmingly reminds us, “Given a straight-up bout between a page of words and thirty seconds of video, you could write off words as “knocked out” in 30 seconds. Not that text is dead. You’re reading it now and it will continue to have a place, but in today’s world of marketing communications, Jane and John Q. Public would rather click a button and watch a screen to get their information and have an experience, than trudge through blocks of copy.”
So how can you incorporate video into your business? Well here are a few suggestions.
Ways to Use Video for Business
Better engagement on your website
American Express shares how more and more people are using video in blog posts to present their products and services in a more visually appealing way. Video can often be more engaging and entertaining than a printed article. While using video in your blog posts or to entice newsletter subscribers is a great start, you can take things further by displaying all of your videos with one dedicated page on your website. This will lower your bounce rate with new visitors and help people filter through your interesting content better.
Commercial Video
Advertising content is a way of pushing your product or service out into the world without over-explaining exactly how it works. These videos should be as short as possible, have a wide appeal, and use a quick and focused theme.
Live Action Explainer Videos
Demoduck suggests besides the above, live-action explainer videos are a good way to demonstrate a tangible product or service. Live Action is also a great tool for connecting with your audience, especially if you run a personal business, like a consulting firm, or a restaurant, or a school. The truth is people like seeing other people. It gives them an emotional connection, which can be powerful and effective when telling your story.
Demonstrate your product or service
As Entrepreneur.com shares don’t just tell but show your customers how your business works. In other words, bring your how-to guides to life. Use customer testimonials: Your best fans can explain on video how using your products or services solved a problem or improved their lives. Help prospects see themselves in the stories of real people.
Company Story Videos
A company story is a great way to introduce your team, culture, and company philosophy in under 5 minutes. Founders, employees, and executives are used as an in-house talent to talk about where you’ve been, and where you’re going. In many industries, retaining customers can be just as hard as winning them in the first place. Video can often be a quick and easy way to connect with your existing customers on an on-going basis.
Start by looking internally at your daily customer interactions. Do you get a lot of customer service calls? Hits to your FAQ page? Social media interaction? Video can be a great replacement for canned emails or a way to quickly connect with people when your team is physically unavailable.
Written words will forever have a place, not only in our hearts but in reality. Most times for a video to be made, words need to be written down first, so it shouldn’t seem like a competition to see whose better. There is room enough to make words and video work together.
